Forming materials such as decorative forming materials, are provided with a hardened surface layer to prevent scratching during forming and during use as formed products. However, since a hardened surface layer has inadequate elasticity to conform to a mold or forming action, it develops cracks during forming. In extreme cases, the film snaps and the hardened surface layer peels off. For this reason, techniques such as the formation of a hardened surface layer after a forming operation and forming in a semi-cured state, followed by complete curing through heating or irradiation with an energy ray have been adopted.
Since formed products have been three-dimensionally processed, it is very difficult to provide a hardened surface layer through post-forming processing. Moreover, forming in a semi-cured state sometimes induces soiling of the mold depending on forming conditions. For these reasons, the focus of attention has, in recent years, been shifting from scratch resistance based on increased hardness to “self-healing materials” designed to repair themselves of minor scratches as anti-scratching materials conforming to the mold or forming action. Self-healing materials are capable of repairing themselves of deformations within their respective elastic recovery ranges (a property known as “self-healing property”) and, roughly speaking, two-types of curing, thermal curing and energy ray curing based on ultraviolet light and electron beams, are known. Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2009-84395 describes an energy ray curing material with a high surface hardness. Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2004-35599, and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2006-137780 describe self-curable energy ray curing materials. International Publication WO 2011/136042, on the other hand, describes a self-curable thermally curing material.
However, the energy ray curing material described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2009-84395, has a problem in that it has no self-healing property despite having a high surface hardness and that it is unsuitable in forming applications with large forming ratios due to low elasticity.
Although the energy ray curing materials described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2004-35599 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2006-137780 and the thermally curing material described in International Publication WO 2011/136042, have adequate self-healing property, they are inadequate in terms of soiling resistance, given that they are sometimes soiled with PVC sheet-derived dioctyl phthalate, cosmetics, oil-based marker pens, and the like.
It could therefore be helpful to provide a laminated film having a self-healing layer that is excellent in forming conformability as well as self-healing property and soiling resistance.